in opposition, controlled area as a lot of buildings collapse because their structures were weak after 10 years of the civil war. many of those areas were repeatedly bombarded in air strikes or artillery shelling. and you can see from the videos emerging from the area, how really catastrophic and catastrophic that situation is. you can actually see one building collapse after the other. people are trapped underneath the rubble and this is an area which lacks the resources. there is no state and that some civilians are helping to think through the rubble using using their bare hands. now also you have the problem of hospitals because an opposition controlled areas. health facilities were repeatedly targeted over over the course of the war. and there's also a lack of doctors and government controls areas. also, they're facing another crisis and that is a cash strapped state, which is unable to provide any services to it's people. so the human toll is

climbing widespread damage calls for international assistance to help them deal with this disaster, which really stuck in the middle of the night. people were asleep, people were many people were in their homes and we have to remember something. this is going to create even more idp is people who have no homes already in that area. millions of people live, live intense. you mentioned international assistance and that sort of being pledged to, to kia. but what about syria? obviously things farrah much more complicated on by well, yes, it is a, it's a complicated situation because the areas are really divided by front lines and government held territories. who do have the united nations operating? they most likely it will mobilize as much as, as much as possible, but up in the north west and the opposition controlled that northwest people really

rely on local and g o. help from, from small organizations as well as turkey. turkey, i really provides a lot of assistance to the people in, in the, in the north and opposition controlled north. and as we have been hearing the situation, inter kia itself is, is a disaster. so where are these people going to receive help from a doctors and hospitals are posting videos on youtube and saying that they need medicine and, and they need support. and so it is a, it's a very dire situation for people who, who really are already on their knees after a decade of war, people who are struggling to put food on the table and the weather conditions as really. but it's really posing a challenge as you can see behind me. the rain has stopped for a bit, but there has been a severe storm of rain, a snow affecting this, this whole region that you felt the deal with quite

a bit in lebanon as well. has there been any reports of damage, minor damage in lebanon, but that tremor was very powerful just after 3 am. i, i can tell you mostly everybody woke up from that tremor which according to the interior ministry, lasted for some 40 seconds, and then there were after shocks. a lot of people evacuated buildings. they said in their cars, they stayed in those creeds, sir. and this is a traumatized city, i must say. nearly 2 and a half years ago, one of the biggest non nuclear explosions destroyed and leveled neighborhoods. it brought back memories, especially when the earth started to shake. people did not know what was what was going on and people were, were really concerned because this is a cash strapped country, a bankrupt state, which is unable to deal with any disaster. no personnel, no equipment, even after that. exposure back in august 2020 without international assistance,

they would have not been able to remove a lot of people from underneath, underneath the rebel. so people were really concerned about this so far, minor damage. but we know that especially up in the north of the country, a lot of the buildings risk collapse. so a lot of people are still afraid to return to their homes. so the tremor was powerful in lebanon, minor damage, no reports of casualties. but syria, syria is a different story and as you've been mentioning turkey as well, they thank you so much for that up. i did send a hold of force in beirut. amazon kamara is the middle east regional director for the syrian american medical society. he says the situation in northern syria is dire. it was an awful arabic week. it took long time for, for, for us to understand what, what's going on. very heavy, everything inside the office get shaking. and then

there the, i wait, wait, we used to go downstairs in the, in very difficult without it may be you can see me sitting inside my car alongside with my family because of the inspection of the government. not to go to the at go to our homes in those hours though very heavy rain and they, they 3 minutes where very, very, very oh, full and terrific. and very difficult or for us. and for every one, we are are here in turkey, in, in a stable state. and they're, they're the government doing it's, it's best to, to help people on to respond. but that, that the crisis is inside syria. unfortunately, at least in, in northwest area, it's a very, very perfect situation. right now we got initial information from our hospital

or above. then all this is and hundreds of injured people. and that, that hot with those or hot with those are all very well. and from the number of casualties in those hospitals, unfortunately, we used to evacuate one of our maternity hospitals because of that, that image and then a because of the air squeak. and also we have at, at at least a $5.00 to $7.00. this is in as she felt hospital in a half breeds. okay, well let's bring in kinnon ark by rom, from bengal to kia. he is the director for the center for energy environment and natural disasters at the university of bengal. and i, i know that you've been watching some of these pictures coming through, sing, buildings,

pancakes and search and rescue workers frantically trying to find people. can you explain the force that is needed to do something like this to create so much damage? i was such a large area. oh, actually the are will late for that. i mean there for these are squeaky or at least a b, b need to do is seismic risk and hazard analysis before this earthquake cause a that means the had to check the engineering structure of the soil and the engineering structure of the existed buildings. and then we needed to a modified our buildings or orse, our cds around these areas. but unfortunately we did a duda of this. this is an earthquake prone area lying on a fault line. what precautions were in place to deal with large earthquakes like this. i mean, how prepared is this region for something of the scale?

unfortunately, this region is not prepared. i cannot say that even the western mama or demand a region ordeal region is bad. i mean, big as i told you before, i let just seconds ago probably via and just mapping a default, and that's fine. we are just trying to understand the behavior of the fulls. that's also fine. but that wasn't enough that we need to do. we need to do a check to so as structures our engineering structures, we had to concentrated on those as a geologist. i am, i am. let's say i don't want to use a stupid word, but i am happy to know that be, be knew that this earthquake common but i am very sad to know that they do it before the earthquake comes. we didn't do the preparations be mostly focused on

search and rescue, which we do very well. i mean, we're just trying to save people. we are an experienced on that. but in terms of peer operation wise. unfortunately, while why wasn't that done? i mean, in an area that we know is prone to, to lodge with quakes, and there are some out click coals, and there are some engineering numbers less safe, a b know you. it's not exactly, but we know partly how many g is already. how many alyssa pga, will we be call the engineering? it's means the gravity that gravity will occur around the earthquake. it regents renewed up, but we had to check the buildings. if they are just you know, a solid 8 there. just

a day will be ready to these the pga values, we didn't do that and the debts dennis, our weakest point, that's why aid every, let's say, earthquakes or just beat to say this kind of disasters. oh, you talking about the building code? i'm in with looking at some of these pictures of, you know, multiple story apartment buildings pretty much pancake flat. i mean, it is the building code up to scratch there. but i don't know, actually i'm not in civil engineer, but did the picture shows shows us know that they are not is suitable. they weren't it just, you know, are using the exact codes or did they work? not a bills were well. yeah. and with the same dozens of aftershocks already in the, in the hours since the 1st earthquake, are we going to be able to expect more of those to come over the next few days?

not only next few days, but next 2 or 3 years. they will be a large aftershocks. they retain city bill villa drop in time, but into 2 of or 3 years. believe you'll be waiting officials. yeah. okay, thank you so much for your your time and your inside. that is kinnen at byron from bengal, turkey, or who is the director for the center of energy environment and natural disasters. thank you very much. well, let's bring in limits, select from a sample. he is the editorial coordinator for daily saba newspaper. thank you very much for joining us out on al jazeera as we continue our coverage of the south quake. can you explain what the government's doing right now to help those in the worst affected areas? well, we can easily say that the, the government and the whole state is literally mobilized with all the ministers to

all the institutions and to all the rescue search and rescue teams being dispatched to the region. so everything at hand is being actually mobilized and all the efforts are underway at the moment and knowing that this school is very large and, and the region is very wide and international call has also been made with the code for level, for emergency sharing. so there's a national call as well, but with regards to what is being done immediately old, the ministers have been dispatched. some governors have been shifted around to, to provide support to the, to didn't regions and inexperienced governors with regards to the earthquake management. and, but we know that, you know, from other provinces, from a stumble, encore, other regions rescue teams have also been dispatched. communications directory

directorate have been managing the communication parts of it, that health and red president and disaster and management has been coordinating. and they are relevant parts. so literally, the whole state mobilization is currently underway and the scope is really, really large. and you know, in provinces being affected is not something that to keep has experience previously despite the fact that is one of the, one of the earthquake problems countries in the region. well, can you just explain a little bit about those, those regions, those provinces, to those of us who might not know much about them? i mean, how large some of the cities and how remote some of the areas while these regions are, you know, pretty much urbanized regions in south eastern part of turkey. they are very developed in terms of their urban areas. but rural areas aren't,

we cannot say that they are as urbanized or as developed. they're very modern cities. they are in the, you know, there are some of the key developed regions. so with that we can say that, you know, the infrastructure is very strong. however, when we look at the number of lots buildings, we can say that there are the, are the earthquake code or the safety codes with regard to that building and construction is unfortunately not followed in some of them. or some of these, the collapse buildings were built prior to this regulation. so they are a very modern city. they're in the south eastern part of turkey. they're very, there are some of the key populated cities in the region. they're not small cities with regards to their population, but they're very urbanized. and this organization creates the density in some of the urban centers. but the fact that it's a very large area makes things

a little bit more difficult when it comes to focusing on rescue and search efforts. obviously we know that this is an earthquake pro, an area lying on a, on a major fault line. i mean, looking at some of these pictures, what do you make of the building codes that was in place and do you think that it was good enough thing, some of the images that are coming through now? well, you know, looking at the pictures and looking at it from far after the things happen, it's something but you know, and whether the inspection were done, whether these buildings were safe and they were on par with the code it something else. fortunately, it is a measure that had to be taken prior to the prior to the earthquake and we know that, you know, this regulation has been in place following the 1999 elections. but you know,

that transformation hasn't taken place with many areas that are prone to earthquake, particularly. you know, it's double, for example, is one of those cities that is on the phone lines and a major earthquake is being expected. a transformation has a big again, but it's not complete yet, and it would be the same goes with many areas that are earthquake, brawn across the whole country. what do you think it's going to be the political impact or the full out from the you know, to keep having elections later this year? well, yes, elections are approaching, but this is, you know, at times like this. this is one of the good things about turkish politics is that all things are put aside despite the fact that there is an election coming at times like this. politics are put aside in a whole stage. and all the, all the parties mobilize to, to, you know, create that says even to g over after the, after this, you know, after the shops,

how the government will be dealing with the damage will be one of the key determinants. i think when it comes to the, you know, they'll be election in may. however, it is too early to talk about politics for my, from my perspective at this moment and i think, you know, turkey even, you know, has had previous earthquakes. you know, at the time of the earthquake politics comes not the 1st thing that comes to mind. we've already seen a number of countries, pledge assistance and health, including the united states. what does to kia need and the initial days and weeks after this, the 5th quake vice president watch. i was speaking earlier. he said that, you know, when it comes to transportation and some of the other needs to kids. very sufficient. but medical medical assistance as well as rescue

and search and rescue teams are some of the you know, helps that you will need again, as i said earlier, the scope is very large. so having a large number of experience and follow 5 teams would be, i think, critical to, to save some lives. i thank you so much for your time. that's in the civic from the daily newspaper where he is the managing it is to, thanks very much for being on al jazeera. let's bring you the latest on this major quite here's what we know. so far. a magnitude, 7.8 earthquake struck the south eastern region of bizarre look, there, casualties reported and both to kia and syria, at least 284 people have been killed and took here after the quake which rocked the turkish syrian border region to cues vice president says more than 2000 people have been injured. for a says got the on tip airport has suspended civil floods. syrian media is about

240 people have been killed. they're a state of emergency has been declared in some parts of syria, and some places are under a disaster zone. or the white house has reacted to the earthquake national security advisor jake sullivan says the u. s. as profoundly concerned, adding washington stands ready to provide assistance. he said that president biden has directed us aid and other federal government partners to assist response options to help those affected. and the us will continue to monitor the situation and coordination with the government of to kia me call soon, the sheriff has more on the earthquake. ah, the scenes that follow a powerful north clay rescue workers crumbling across piles of debris trying to reach survivors. the accretion made harder by a winter storm. it s 4 level is

asked years or north by the officer turkish air disaster also the g. there it means an international or disaster international level disaster to quit smoking remote areas. an eastern turkey, harder to access at the best of times. but early rescue efforts are also been hindered by bad weather and car as calling for international help with more than 10 cities affected. neighboring severe has also been hit hard casualties, a mounting the regions of an epo hummer and luckier among the worst affected abuse you have. you do like you should get a job in civilian buildings have completely been destroyed due to an earthquake that hit the north west of syria around 4 30 in the morning. the situation is dire and catastrophic. tens of buildings have fallen in the city of sel. kinda rockland

is complete electrical blackout. it's really catastrophic. every one is on the streets. the buildings are either destroyed or barely holding. here. the quake was felt throughout the eastern mediterranean, including lebanon, cypress palestine, israel, and as far as egypt, turkey sits on top of major seismic fault lines and is frequently shaken by of quakes. some 80000 people were killed in crates that hit the northwest in 1999 on a cold, some sheriff algebra. allow me to roll a just a rob mchale. we joined us in the studio and we heard before from our correspondent and took he had a just some of the wither that is affected this region. and how that is hampering if it's just how bad is it? there's about the worst tommy this could possibly have happened. danny's one of them both major stores they've had. so farming temperatures are one problem. they're about hovering around about 0 at the moment because of course,

most of eastern turkey and norton parts of syria maintenance. so you go from almost sea level up to about 1000 meters or more and every what sounds and yeah, 1000 meters also you change them by 3 degrees. so attempt has one problem, of course, but it's, it's the stormy weather that's been the real problem. at the moment the wind is blowing hard on 11 time coast. it's a little bit lighter in land, but you're just the major rescue berries taking place. whereas a difference between snow and rain and so you might get any of these sleet, snow or rain and it's coming through later today. so that is the picture. this is a rescue conditions for to day. now i already took these from yesterday. there are a lot of displace people up here, refugee camps and the conditions already a fairly poor i the snowy or wet and definitely cold. and that's the picture that and overnight we do drop subzero to lap is minus 2. so you could imagine a bit higher, are we talking about minus $45.00 or 6?

and the snow is still falling. this is tonight. if i take you into to morrow, then the snow does ease up in terms of dude rise a little bit. so it does look a little better tomorrow i have to say, and if i take you beyond that, we go some 0. this is choosing out. so 36 hours times you're like and then when the stays on the ground, you can get really cold. when the wind start blood, that is very bad, if you are trapped fairly, obviously from that point on was generally speaking where the by day and night is much better, but overnight it will be frosty tom certain conditions are there worse now and later on today i suspect it's extremely grim for the search and rescue with it and those affected, but there's another storm that student roll through shortly. is that right? well that is current. really, it is coming across turkey at the moment, so it's going to be today tonight and then tomorrow things start to eat off. okay, thank you so much. that is a rob, mecca, we are a making roll, a just well for more on this, i'm now joined by us and, and concealed who, who's monitoring developments from assemble?

can you just bring us up to date with the damage to the infrastructure, the ports, and some of the health facilities and the roads that oversee the search and rescue work as a trying to use to get into the worst effected areas? well, yes, definitely. as the there are 10 more cities that are affected by the epicenter pas are just call her mom, marsh earthquake, of course. the tool is also big. and for now we know that got down to call her mom or as a for suspended civilian sites. so. 5 for now, there is no access to those cities except for the aid deliveries and a response teams. and we have been seeing reports that 2 hospitals have collapsed as well along with other housing, housing, buildings, and hospitals being damaged is a problem in the region. the area that that is prone to this earthquake is

a wide area. yes, there are 10 cities effected by this earthquake. some cities are close to each other, 2 or 3 hours, right? some of them are 65 hours a drive to the at the center city of call, her mom rush, but apparently as the time goes by, as every hour passes, we are about to see more tragic picture than more. we are about to hear more tragic news from the official just we heard the turkish vice president coating the number of the casualties that 284 and he mentioned that 1710 buildings have been have been leveled, leveled down during this earthquake at cross eastern anatolia eastern care. so this means we might face more that the news we might face and more pictures in the coming hours rescue workers are working. we know that some of the other

infrastructure buildings, main infrastructure has been damaged as well. this is what we heard from the vice president and natural gas has been cut to the city itself, gas and 7, ca, her mom, my us. and it might take, it may take days to repair those pipelines, which means under these weather conditions all those civilians are going to be suffering more if they are not able to get inside their houses. and for them to get back in, in their homes, in their appointments as difficult because no one has any idea about any damage potential that has a, that the earthquake caused for those buildings. so this is a very dire situation for the region and for its residents, and i must also highlight that yes, this is eastern, anatole down that has been hit by this earthquake. there are 10 cities, but some of the city is like garcia and mulatto. a hot tie,

these are highly populated, that is big cities of the region of is there anatoly or is there any southeastern anatolia. so we will be following the turkish officials and rescue teams and yields . and we will be a we will be a coating, air, they are reports to you. okay. and im cosivity. thank you so much for that update from is stan bull. well, i just want to bring you up to date with the latest on the earthquake. here's what we noticed, so far. a magnitude, 7.8 earthquake struck the south eastern region of project. 284 people have died and took here after the quake hit the turkish syrian border region. the vice president says more than 2000 people have been injured for it. ok day says a z on tip airport has suspended civil flights. now syrian medias is about 240 people have been killed. their, their state of emergency has been declared in some parts of syria and some places

are under a disaster zone. we will keep monitoring the situation in turkey and syria and the wider area as they deal. and struggle with this nyja is quite well that is all from me. toma cried, keep watching al special coverage. i will be back in just a moment with more ah ah ah ah

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